There are plenty of ways to fill up time during the long hours of quarantine. Here, I’ll suggest one of many forms of entertainment, reading. I’ll specifically highlight books that can relate to the apocalyptic feeling of the present.
Although it’s true that when people think about the apocalypse, a pandemic of the corona-kind isn’t the first to come to mind. Moreover, our nation’s current political climate seems to be unravelling under pressure by the public to amend police brutality once and for all after the cruel murder of George Floyd, a black man from Minneapolis. Even though authors tend to glaze over the gradual beginnings of an apocalypse, I believe that where we are now is akin to the makings of one very impressive apocalypse. The seeds of destruction have been planted.
So here’s a list and brief synopsis of a few books to get you excited about the end times!
First off, I have to recommend Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky— the first book in a series of two, with the third book in the oven. The novel begins with the scientist Avrana Kern terraforming a new planet for humans.
Her project has faced backlash on Earth, and a fanatic naturalist attempts to sabotage her experiment. Amidst the chaos, Kern fastracks the experiment by launching the apes and a nanovirus to aid the apes in their evolution. Unbeknownst to Kern, the apes never make it to Kern’s World (the name of the planet).
The naturalist was on a suicide mission, and intended to blow Kern’s ship to pieces. So, Kern abandons her crew, and launches herself in a sentry pod above Kern’s World, where she floats in cryogenic (similar to a frozen sleep, that slows age, allowing the inhabitant to live for hundreds of years) suspension, awaiting a rescue mission and overseeing the evolution of her planet.
The novel follows two storylines: one, of the terraformed planet’s evolution. The apes, who were meant to be infected with the nanovirus, never made it to the planet. So the nanovirus affects other creatures. Specifically follows the evolution of spiders. Each chapter narrates one generation of arachnids. Tchaikovsky wonderfully portrays the maturing of an entire culture, dominated by females, separated by religion, and united by development of technology and society
The second storyline follows the humans. Two hundred years after Kern’s experiment was sabotaged, Earth has fallen apart. The Gilgamesh is one of many ships that escapes the planet, carrying five hundred cryogenically frozen passengers, seeking a new planet to make a home out of. The protagonists here are Holsten Mason, a historian, and Isa Lain, the spaceship’s chief engineer. Their journey is riddled with revolutions, an insane captain who strives for immortality, cults, and coups. Arachnids are a stark contrast to the humans, who represent a declining society, living in the shadows of their own ancestors.
The remainder of the novel explores the interaction between arachnids and humans, with the old, god-like Avrana Kern (now downloaded as an AI) in the middle of it all. There is war, misunderstanding, and action. A truly epic sci-fi novel.
The second novel I will recommend is the first of a series, Red Rising, by Pierce Brown. A novel I read for LA honors that has me hooked on the rest of the series (a total of five books). Similar to Children of Time, this novel also glosses over the eruption of war that destroyed the world we are familiar with now (although a story explaining the rupture of society would be AMAZING).
This novel depicts a society separated by color. After a war that took over the entirety of Earth, the leaders of this twisted society began genetically engineering people, assigning eye color to create a society divided by caste. Each caste had a purpose, and their bodies were engineered to meet that purpose. At the very bottom of the caste are the Reds, those that drill helium-3 deep below the surface of Mars. The main character, Darrow, is a Red content with his life. But his wife inspires him to live for more, and so begins the revolution.
These novels are wonderful ways to fill up the time, and their excitement can keep you occupied for hours.
